The Cooper Family-Syed Rahman, CHC2D by Syed Aqeeb Rahman

1914-1918

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-06 14:26:59 UTC

The Cooper Family

The Cooper family's story all started when my great-grandfather met a lady when he was 18 and had my grandfather. This was also when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated on June 30th, 1914. My Great-Grandfather George Sigma Cooper II was a farmer living in a rural area in east Ontario, Toronto. The news was shared with him through his brother, who worked at a farm five blocks away from his farm. They both negotiated and decided to join the war that was coming shortly after the Archduke's death. This would help them with their financial issues as serving in the war gave them very good benefits such as disability compensation, pension, education and training, health care, home loans, insurance, Veteran Readiness, and Employment. It was also said that they were victims of a very convincing propaganda regarding the war outbreak. So on August 4th, 1914 my grandfather and his brother (Edward Sigma Cooper II Junior) went to serve in war. My Great-Grandmother, Elizabeth Cooper was then living alone with my Grandfather (Steve Sigma Cooper). It was a tough time because she had to raise a child and help in the war efforts by using the farms while her husband and brother were in the war.

1914-1918

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-06 14:28:18 UTC

By 1916-1917, there was a Conscription crisis because of many losses on the Western Front. The Conscription crisis was very big news for my Great-Grandmother as it allowed women to vote for the first time. Not any woman, though; only wives of soldiers, nurses, sisters of soldiers, and basically any woman who contributed to the war efforts. Soon after the Military Service Act (Conscription) became a law on August 29th, 1917. This meant all of my Grandfather’s male cousins and family who were 18+ years old had to enlist in the war due to the conscription law. This was a very big tragedy as a lot of man power was needed for both farms but now since they dont have that anymore the women had to work almost all the time to keep helping in the war efforts throughout the years. Soon after around mid-June 1917’s my Great-grandmother got a letter from the mail. It was a letter and a report. The letter was from my Great-grandfather giving an update on what their doing. To summerize what his letter said, he said about how terrible it was fighting in the war, like in the trenches it would always smell like urine and rats crawling up to you in bed as well as how bad thee food was and shooting over dead bodies and such. He also said that he was fighting in the 2nd battle of Ypres which was held on April 22nd 1915. That is mostly all he said besides the sob story messages like “i miss you” and stuff. Sadly the report was about his Death. My Great-Grandfather fell in the battle of Vimy Ridge on the first day, April 9th, 1917. My Great-grandfather was one of the 3,598 Canadians who fell in that battle. The number is somewhat small because Vimy Ridge was a big success for the Allied forces and Canadians as they had captured Vimy Ridge in the end of the battle. Back to the report, My great-grandmother was very troubled and sad as since she lost her Husband it would be very bad for their farm and everything. Soon later when the war had ended on November 11, 1918, My Great grand-uncle survived and came back from the war. My great-grandmother decided to live with them and sell everything on their farm to raise my Grand father and everyone else in the family.

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-06 14:35:30 UTC

1919-1938

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-07 16:26:50 UTC

Almost 2 years after World War 1 ended my Great-grandmother has been living with my great grand uncle who is now a World War 1 veteran sitting in a wheelchair due to injuries. My great-grandmother decided to move to the big city because their farms were doing very poorly and in the big city there is a lot of opportunity as it is very popular and some family on my great grandmother's side also lives there. So we decided to move to Ottawa, the Capital city of the country in June 1920’s. It was a long 3-hour trip by car after saying goodbyes to my Great grand aunt and cousins. When they got to the city My grandfather and great grandmother lived in my great grand aunt, Helen Booker’s home. My great grandmother settled in and found a job at a nearby Grocery store and her son, my grandfather would stay in my great aunt's home. My great aunt is a Teacher at an elementary school. The women in the house were always working because the men of the house were either injured from war or dead. The ones who came back from the war unfortunately did not get the luxuries when they came back from things like disability compensation, pension, education and training, health care, home loans, insurance, Veteran Readiness, and Employment. Overall life was going pretty good in the 1920s.

The Great depression

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-07 16:34:54 UTC

The Great Depression
In the 1930’s it was a horrible time because of the big stock market crash in North America due to high tariffs, dependence on the US for supplies and things of that sort in the economy. The Stock market crash was very significant because everyone put all their life savings into which had also included my Great-Aunt. When the Stock market crashed my Great-Aunt was waiting in front of the bank on black tuesday for hours trying to not believe that the crash was real and was a mistake. Luckily my Great - grandmother was not affected by this and kept her income and did not put her life savings in the Stock market, however during that time there was news about farmers being hit by drought and a plague of grasshopper which meant that My great-aunt in law and Great-uncle on my dad’s side are most likely victims of this. Soon later a letter was sent from Toronto, it was sent from Mary Juno Cooper, my great-aunt in law. The letter explained how the drought was very severe but they were still pushing through even though there is much to live off over there. They are also saying they will also move to Ottawa as the drought will get worse. Few weeks later they sold their farm and came to live with my Great-grandmother and her aunt for a while. It was a really tough time for food and money because the farm isn't worth much so almost everyone had to work to provide for themselves. By now there were around 7 people living in that house during the great depression. Unfortunately the income was not great because of their job at the grocery store because of the lower sales count because there weren't many customers. On top of that they had a world war 1 veteran, my great uncle to take care of because of his injuries! Over the years until 1938 the Cooper family were in the great depression working in a barely working grocery store and some of the teen boys including my grandfather working in relief camps because of the political state of the country.

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-07 16:40:17 UTC

The Home Front

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-10 04:36:25 UTC

The Homefront

In 1938 the whole family were still working very hard to provide for themselves. Still, when war preparations came up (Total war) it really changed the way of working as everything was starting to become normal again from The Great Depression and it happened because another world war started. Mainly everything started to go normal because everyone was getting employed and goods were being sold because of the total war act/effort. It was so serious that in working places it had very strict rules for the war efforts like saving sugar icing wasn't allowed on cakes, skirts were made at a certain length to save materials for the war efforts, children gathered bottles and cans to give to factories for materials for the war efforts and so on. It was very busy and hardworking during that time but apparently, it had a great omen as my family and others were very motivated through many propaganda a popular one being the Rosie the Riveter and Benny the Bungler propaganda. Soon after around 1941 news broke out that women were allowed to enlist in the army. My grand cousin Zenith Cooper was encouraged by this idea of enlisting in the army as it would put her great leadership skills to work and honor my great-grandfather because one of his dreams was to see women have more freedom which this is a good way to make his dreams come true as this is the first time for when women get to enlist for the army. In 1944 June 13th Zenith was working at Camp X supporting pilots in the RCAF( Royal Canadian Air Force). This was very significant as 1, it was the first time women got to enlist for war, 2 it was a wish come true for my great-grandfather who was deceased at the time, and 3, she was working in a top secret which helped in the war at a significant amount.

Japanese internment

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-10 04:45:37 UTC

Japenese Internment - My Grandfather’s Little Love Story That Failed.
Back to the other's lives, nothing really important happened except for my Grandfather’s ex-fiancee, Mary Takakura. She is a Japanese-Canadian who was born in 1912 and was born in Canada. She had a Japanese father and mother who moved to Canada for a better life because of the reputation of the country. My Grandfather had met her while working at the grocery store with his mother, when he saw her it was love at first sight because he had never seen a Japanese person so he immediately decided to confess to her. My grandfather and his parents agreed on this relationship as she also looked interesting to them and was said to be a good omen to their family by my great-grandmother. Mary’s parents also agreed on this as their dream of a better life would be better if their daughter married a white man. This happened during the end of the great depression around mid-1939. However 2 years later when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor the Japanese people were targeted by racism and were called enemy aliens. Mary was in British Columbia to help some relatives at a farm during that time and soon after the Government decided to place Japanese people into internment camps and take them away from their homes. Unfortunately, Mary was a victim of the 21,000 Japanese Canadians who were taken away into the internment camp with Mary’s family and her relatives. Unfortunately, no word came to my Grandfather except for the internment camps. At first, he was worried but didn't put much thought into it because he didn't know that she was on a trip to British columbia and was a victim of this. During the time Mary was away my Grandfather started to forget about her as he was busy with his work and family. Sadly even after the world war and Japanese Canadians were freed from the internment camps they never met each other again and everyone forgot about her. This was the only information about Mary due to their very distant and short relationship.

Steve Sigma Cooper

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-10 05:01:22 UTC

Born on December 14th, 1914

Married to his wife Margret Smith when he was 40 on 1954 June 2nd and had a child at age 50 which is my dad on December 3rd 1964 and passed away at age 56 due to a heart disease.

Great cousin Luke Cooper

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-10 05:07:03 UTC

Born in 1912 on January 6th died at age 43 on 1955 December 6th due to a illness called "Scarlet Fever"

Great-grandma Elizabeth cooper

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-10 05:13:58 UTC

Born 1898 January 2nd married at age 18 gave birth to her son in December 14th and died on age 60 on November 5th 1958 due to a heart disease.

Citations

syedaqeebrahman — 2025-01-10 17:46:12 UTC

Binder, Mike. n.d. “Japanese Canadian Internment: Prisoners in their own Country.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed January 10, 2025. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/japanese-internment-banished-and-beyond-tears-feature.

“Great Depression | Definition, History, Dates, Causes, Effects, & Facts.” 2025. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Depression.

“Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division.” n.d. Wikipedia. Accessed January 10, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Air_Force_Women%27s_Division.